


A Study in Feelings by Aaron Minyard

by aristotlethecat



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Aaron just doesnt understand his own feelings, Aaron just wants to lick kevin, Aarons bisexual awakening, Getting Together, Hook-Up, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, because I like to project ok, implied autistic!aaron, somewhere between fluff and smut idk, there is only one he understands and that is horny, this can be read as a one shot but I low key might continue with it, we'll see it took me forever to write just this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:00:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29168463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aristotlethecat/pseuds/aristotlethecat
Summary: He hesitates for too long and Nicky pokes him. “What’s up little dude,” he says. “Are you finally having that long-awaited sexuality crisis? Hm?”Aaron closes his eyes. “I want to lick Kevin Day’s face.” He covers his face with his hands again and groans. “It’s so goddamn pretty,” he mumbles.“Oh,” Nicky says after a moment. “Wow. You are.”Aaron scoffs. “You wanted to fucking know.”---In which Aaron doesn't know how to process his emotions and Kevin is Kevin idk just read the story.
Relationships: Kevin Day/Aaron Minyard, Nicky Hemmick & Aaron Minyard
Comments: 26
Kudos: 130





	1. A Study in Lust

Aaron is bad at recognizing his own emotions. 

It’s not that he doesn’t have them (he suspects he has them less often than the average person but more often than Andrew), but he doesn’t show them in the same way other people do. He’s studied emotions throughout his lifetime, the same way he’s studied the body, the same way he’s studied illnesses and wounds and fractures. He’s compiled lists in his mind of the symptoms of anger, of fear, of lust. 

The problem is that he always seems to forget to consult these lists when it comes to himself. If Andrew shuts down and becomes unresponsive, he knows he’s angry, but when Aaron does the same he forgets that’s what that means. If Kevin cracks his knuckles on his playing hand before a big game Aaron notices his nerves in a second, but forgets to consider nerves until after the Tums fail to calm his stomach the night before an exam. And when Nicky settles down with a tub of ice cream and watches reruns of Seinfeld during the school year, Aaron knows he’s missing Erik, yet it took Neil-fucking-Josten to point out Aaron’s own sulking after the big breakup with Katelyn and, consequently, to snap him out of it. 

It’s not necessarily a huge problem, that he doesn’t recognize his emotions all the time. Sometimes when he forgets to check himself, he can go through an entire nervous breakdown on cruise control, feeling perfectly at ease and in top condition, and not realize that he was struggling until after the fact. He’d never admit it to Andrew, but he suspects that’s how he made it through all those years, his whole childhood, with Tilda. Sure, it would hurt sometimes, and sure the addiction problem was a bitch to kick, but he was mostly content and mostly functional throughout those years. It’s only now, many years later, that he realizes upon looking back what a horrible mental state he was actually in without knowing. 

Other times, though, Aaron can appreciate the times when he’s able to recognize his feelings immediately. Times like with Katelyn, the first time he sat next to her in a lab, when she raised her hand to answer a question and he realized the particular brand of appreciation he was feeling toward her was attraction. Times like when he noticed Andrew and Neil getting closer and immediately pegged the sinking in his stomach as jealousy, as envy for the type of close and comfortable relationship with his brother that he’d never quite gotten to work out. Emotions like jealousy are uncomfortable, of course, but ultimately much more comfortable than trying to analyze his reactions, his symptoms, for hours upon hours and still failing to come to the conclusion of what he’s feeling. Ultimately more comfortable than floating around waiting for something concrete to come and punch him in the stomach and tell him what he’s feeling.

And such is why, when Aaron notices himself checking out Kevin’s shoulders as he changes out after practice one day, he only feels like throwing up a little bit.

Aaron’s journey with his sexuality up until this point has been relatively short lived. He assumed he was straight for most of his life like the good Catholic boy that Tilda raised him to be, experimented with girls in high school before Andrew, been with Katelyn after Andrew, experimented with a threesome and only kinda hated it (much messier), been broken up with, and, now, ogled Kevin in the locker room because he has muscular shoulders and a dark tan. Technically it doesn’t really have to mean anything. Aaron is confident enough in his masculinity that he can admit to considering it, that he can admit that the feel of someone leaner, someone with their fat arranged in a different way—a more masculine way—had felt nice under his fingers, and briefly his lips, the few times he tried it out with Katelyn. He can admit that when she told him it was hot the next morning after the guy left he silently agreed.

So admiring Kevin? Not so crazy. He’s the fittest person anyone who’s ever met him will ever know, the goddamned Son of Exy, trained by only the best since little leagues. Sun-kissed and sweat-soaked, it’s a wonder anyone on the team can ever take their eyes off of him. Not to mention the things that come out of his mouth, though usually about exy, are never near as dimwitted as anything any of the other foxes say on a regular basis. One of Aaron’s core turn-ons has always been competence, and with a group of people like the foxes just the mere act of biting your tongue might as well earn you a medal.

No, admiring’s not the problem. The problem comes a few days later when they’re driving back to the Colombia house after a night at Eden’s and the streetlights catch on Kevin’s cheekbone, shiny from sweat and adorned with the queen tattoo. It might be the alcohol talking, but Aaron’s never realized how much he likes the look of it, the tattoo dark and contrasting, a shadow across Kevin’s face and proof that he made it through. He wants to touch it. He wants to lick it. He wants… he wants to be with Kevin. And not just sexually. He wants the piggyback rides, the celebratory kisses after games, the playful taunts, the study sessions turned make out sessions. He wants it all, the feeling of feeling something consistently and (usually) being able to pinpoint exactly what it is. And he wants it all with Kevin.

He closes his eyes against the world and Kevin’s stupid beautiful face and he groans and drops his head to Nicky’s shoulder, using both hands to cover his face.

“If you’re going to be sick tell Neil to pull over,” Andrew says from the passenger’s seat. Aaron only shakes his head and mumbles something only somewhat coherent about a headache that most definitely exists and that he most definitely did not make up to get Andrew off his case without telling him about his new and somewhat alarming feelings about Kevin. It shouldn’t work, really, because Aaron rarely gets headaches and if he does it’s never until the morning after, but Andrew doesn’t push the issue, probably just satisfied to know Aaron won’t be dirtying his leather seats. Nicky, however, pulls his arm around Aaron’s shoulders and allows Aaron to bury his head in his chest and grasp at the front of his shirt. He’ll want answers when they get to the Colombia house, but Aaron can handle that. At least it means he won’t be rooming with Kevin for the night.

To his credit, Nicky waits until they’ve both brushed their teeth and changed into pajamas and settled in before he comes back with two glasses of water and Advil and asks the dreaded question.

“So do you actually need this—“ he shakes the bottle of Advil— “or are you going to tell me how you’re actually feeling?”

Feeling. Feeling? Feeling. He has to laugh.

“Come on.” Nicky sets down the glasses and Advil on the side table and flops onto the bed next to Aaron. “You must be able to pinpoint some sort of emotion in that robot brain of yours.”

If Aaron was maybe a little less intoxicated he would probably think a bit more before answering. But he went hard tonight, drank himself not only into but far past oblivion, and so he says the first feeling that comes to mind, the first one he can name within himself. Fortunately, he at least has the sense to cover his face with a pillow before saying “Horny.”

Nicky goes still. “You—I’m sorry? Should I, like, leave for a while or something?”

Aaron throws the pillow aside and sighs. “No,” he says. “I’m—not in the moment, I just. Um.”

He hesitates for too long and Nicky pokes him. “What’s up little dude,” he says. “Are you finally having that long-awaited sexuality crisis? Hm?”

Aaron closes his eyes. “I want to lick Kevin Day’s face.” He covers his face with his hands again and groans. “It’s so goddamn pretty,” he mumbles.

“Oh,” Nicky says after a moment. “Wow. You are.”

Aaron scoffs. “You wanted to fucking know.”

“Right, right.” Nicky clicks his tongue. “So in the car just now…”

“Cheekbones,” Aaron groans, as if that’s an answer. Luckily, Nicky seems to take it as one.

“Huh,” he says. “Um. Ok then. So… you gonna go for it?”

“Go for what?”

“Kevin, duh.”

Aaron frowns, looks over at Nicky, blinks. “Uh, no.”

Nicky flicks Aaron’s forehead. “Why the fuck not?” he asks. “He’s hot, you’re horny, he’s a room over—“

“He’s not gay.”

“Neither are you,” Nicky says. “You know I’ve always wondered whether Kevin would be up for that kinda thing…”

“Go to sleep Nicky.” Aaron throws the pillow at him. “It’s not a big deal. It’s not even a deal. I’m just lonely and I need to sleep it off.”

“Hm.” Nicky turns off the bedside lamp. “Whatever you say, ‘Ron.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Night to you too.”

\---

Aaron should’ve known the last person you go to with a secret is Nicky. He supposes Nicky at least had the sense of mind to tell Kevin it was a secret, because Kevin doesn’t say anything. The glances on the way back to Palmetto are enough, though. With how much he’s looking at him, Aaron could almost believe Kevin returns his feelings. If he didn’t know Nicky blabbed, that is. But Nicky’s looking too, and Aaron knows.

So when Andrew pulls up to Fox Tower and they all file out, Aaron jogs over to the sidewalk and starts in the direction of the library rather than walking in with the rest of them. 

The rest of them except one, that is. 

Aaron pulls the sleeves of his shirt down to cover his hands and says, without looking back, “Unless you’re going to confess that you secretly want to deflower me as well, Day, now’s not really the best time and in fact I’d prefer if you just never talked to me again.”

“Well if we’re going to make out I think we’re a little past the last name stage, don’t you think, Minyard?”

“Make—“ Aaron pauses, frowns, turns around. “You’re not serious.”

Kevin shrugs. “Am if you are,” he says.

Aaron spares Kevin a cursory glance, eyes narrowed, then says, “Why?”

Kevin fidgets with his hand, brushing his fingers over the white scar marks as he answers. “You’re not the only one who’s been looking, you know.” His gaze, which dropped to his hands, returns to Aaron’s. “Just the only one dumb enough to blab to Nicky.”

“Drunk enough, you mean,” Aaron says, then shakes his head. “Give me a bit to wrap my head around this. Right now I can’t… Just find me at Eden’s next week, ok?”

“A whole week, huh?” If Aaron didn’t know any better, he’d say Kevin is almost smiling. Must be a trick of the light though—Kevin doesn’t smile for anything but the cameras and USC’s exy team. “I’ll find you,” he promises, then turns to head back to Fox Tower. 

Aaron smiles. He’s feeling… he’s feeling. 

\---

There’s a finger on Kevin’s right hand that never quite straightens completely. It must’ve gotten jammed when he was young and never completely healed right, or maybe it was another one of Riko’s special presents for him that, no doubt, Kevin would’ve seen as just fine because it wasn’t his playing hand. Nonetheless, when a hand flattens against Aaron’s shoulder blade the following week at Eden’s, Aaron knows it’s Kevin before turning around because the pointer finger doesn’t flatten out like the rest do, only the tip resting on the edge of his shoulder blade.

“Day,” Aaron says upon turning to face him.

Kevin pushes Aaron’s bangs aside and places a thumb on his cheek. “Still doing the last name thing? I thought we talked about that.”

Aaron very carefully keeps his hands at his sides. “You did, not me,” he says. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No.” Kevin sweeps his thumb up in an arc across Aaron’s cheekbone, back to his earlobe, and drops his hand. “Just waiting,” he says.

Aaron spares a glance in the direction of their table, glad when he’s unable to see it past the crowd of bodies, and places his hand on Kevin’s chest. “Ok,” he says, then curls his fingers around the fabric of Kevin’s shirt and pulls.

Kevin gasps into the kiss and Aaron can feel his heartbeat beneath his shirt, stuttering and heavy, as they move together. It’s much different from kissing Katelyn, harder, more desperate, but Kevin is clearly experienced and Aaron’s losing himself, falling all over Kevin, tripping over his feet as he reaches up around Kevin’s neck with his other hand for a better angle. 

He pulls back. “You’re too fucking tall,” he gasps out.

“Look who’s talking, shorty,” Kevin replies, and Aaron bites at his lip once more before pushing him away.

“Bathroom,” he says, and Kevin grabs his hand wordlessly and begins to use his height to his advantage to navigate the two in that direction. Aaron pretends not to be so affected by Kevin’s sweaty palm against his, and fails seconds later as he raises their hands to his lips and licks away a rivulet of sweat trailing down from where Kevin’s sleeve hits his wrist. 

“God fuck…” Kevin mutters from in front of him, and Aaron makes sure he feels the curve of his lips on the back of his hand. 

They finally get to the bathroom, which reeks only as much as the club itself does, and Kevin picks up Aaron and pushes him onto the sink, and Aaron wonders how hard you have to push against another person’s mouth before it bruises purple. His hands grasp at the sides of Kevin’s face, fingers curling around the shells of his ears, and Aaron could do this forever. Oxygen is one of the few things humans cannot go without, and yet the breathlessness consumes him, and the shared CO2 seems almost more important in the moment. It’s grasping blindly for the needle in the haystack. It’s the relief that comes with the pain of the prick.

“We should do this more often,” Aaron manages as Kevin’s lips depart his to create a spit trail down the side of his neck. It’s not as gross as it would seem, having another person’s saliva all over you. It’s a bit intoxicating, actually. Aaron still wants to lick Kevin’s face.

“We should,” Kevin counters between kisses, “have been doing this for a long time.”

Aaron scoffs. “Excuse me for having a girlfriend,” he says. “You should’ve asked her about getting in on a threesome, then maybe it wouldn’t have taken so long.”

“I don’t do threesomes.” Kevin gives one last suck on Aaron’s collarbone, then returns to his lips. “I prefer you to myself.”

Aaron could swoon, but Aaron Minyard is not a swooner, so he doesn’t. Instead, he licks Kevin over his tattoo, pushes away, and jumps down from the sinks. As he’s fixing himself in the mirrors, he says, “Don’t get so drunk you pass out tonight,” and then he’s out. Kevin’s eyes prickle the back of his neck for the rest of the night.


	2. A Study in Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What the fuck.” Nicky sits on his bed. “You’re worse than Andreil. What the fuck.”
> 
> Aaron rolls his eyes, takes off his glasses, leans back in his chair. “It’s fine this way,” he says. “No expectations, no disappointment, no complications.” 
> 
> “But complications are fun,” Nicky says. “Like long distance is a bitch obviously, but it just shows how much we love each other that much more.”
> 
> Aaron turns to raise a brow at Nicky. “I’m not in love with Kevin.”
> 
> “But you could be.”
> 
> \---
> 
> Aaron thinks he's fine. Nicky thinks Aaron is a goddamned idiot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all wanted it so here it is. I have no clue how long this will go. I hope you know you just signed up for me projecting for who knows how long. Aaron is basically just me but with sexual attraction. Enjoy :)

Aaron and Kevin start hooking up after that, just every Friday and never at Palmetto, and Aaron doesn’t know how to feel about it so he just doesn’t. Chooses not to. As far as Aaron’s concerned, it’s just hooking up, getting off, and there’s nothing more that needs to be said.

Nicky disagrees.

“I don’t get it.” Nicky paces to the doorway of their dorm and when he turns back, says, “You like him.”

Aaron scratches down a definition for abrasion on a notecard and replies, “Yeah.”

“And you’re hooking up.”

“Yup.”

“So—“ back to the door— “we can assume he like you too.”

Aaron pauses a second to bite his pen cap and turn the page in his textbook. “We could probably make that assumption,” he says.

“Ok.” Another turn, back in Aaron’s direction. “Then why haven’t you asked him out?”

Aaron shrugs.

“What the fuck.” Nicky sits on his bed. “You’re worse than Andreil. What the fuck.”

Aaron rolls his eyes, takes off his glasses, leans back in his chair. “It’s fine this way,” he says. “No expectations, no disappointment, no complications.” 

“But complications are fun,” Nicky says. “Like long distance is a bitch obviously, but it just shows how much we love each other that much more.”

Aaron turns to raise a brow at Nicky. “I’m not in love with Kevin.”

“But you could be.”

“I didn’t fall in love with Katelyn.” Aaron throws a spare pen at Nicky’s face. “There’s no way I’m falling in love with Kevin Day.”

Nicky frowns, rubs the spot where the pen hit him on his cheek. “Didn’t you though?” he says eventually. “I thought… You and Katelyn seemed so… And after it you were…”

“Finish your sentences, Nicky.”

Nicky shakes his head. “It’s just that you guys reminded me of me and Erik, that’s all,” he says. “And with how devastated you were after the breakup… I really thought you were in love.”

“Love,” Aaron says, and it’s then that he realizes he’s not entirely certain what it is. He’s never studied those symptoms, never really had the chance. Devotion, affection, lust, yes, but never love. It’s too amorphous, experiences too varied, and besides, with a feeling that strong, Aaron assumes he’ll know it when it hits. If it hits. 

He’ll have to do some research.

“I just think you’re missing out on something that could be really great,” Nicky says. “You and Kevin… I think it’s good.”

Aaron scoffs. “You think anything gay is good.”

“Haven’t been wrong yet, have I?” Nicky says with a grin.

“Andrew’s gay and he’s not good.”

“Yeah, but Neil cancels him out.”

Aaron doesn’t dignify that with a response. Everybody knows how he feels about Neil by now. Andrew ‘hates’ him, but Aaron, well, he just hates him.

Nicky sighs. “Just think about it when you get the time. It could be really good.”

Aaron nods. What Nicky doesn’t know won’t hurt him; Aaron never has the time.

\---

Aaron doesn’t realize how tired he is until Kevin laughs, his lips vibrating under Aaron’s, and maneuvers Aaron so he’s no longer on top of him but next to him on the bed in his room in Colombia. Aaron rubs his eyes open and takes a second to appreciate shirtless Kevin before him before squinting up at Kevin’s face through a yawn.

“Shit, sorry,” he says. “Long week. Labs. Tests.”

“That’s ok.” Kevin wraps an arm around Aaron’s shoulders, pulling him close, fitting Aaron into the corners of himself the way they’d been learning to the past couple of months. “We can just sleep tonight. Maybe sneak in a shower if we get up early enough.”

Aaron closes his eyes, snorts against Kevin’s chest. “Fat chance. You know what you’re like in the morning.”

“I just need a bit of motivation,” Kevin counters, his lips against Aaron’s forehead. 

Aaron hums. “Well maybe you’ll get some,” he mumbles, brushing his hand over the hard muscles of Kevin’s abdomen. He tries to imagine Kevin with a beer gut one day and can’t help but laugh at the thought—Kevin would rather die before giving up his health regimen, even now when he’s as far away as he could possibly be from his time with the Ravens. Old habits die hard.

“What’s funny?” Kevin asks.

“Mental image of you with a beer gut.” Aaron runs his fingers along the indents of Kevin’s abs.

Kevin brings a hand to Aaron’s and stills his fingers, intertwining them with his own. “Take that back,” he says, more amused than offended.

Aaron shrugs. “Can’t help what pops to mind.”

“If you get a beer gut one day,” Kevin huffs, “I’m not helping you get rid of it.”

Aaron just hums and buries his head further into Kevin’s chest as he gets closer to sleep. It’s quiet after that, and Kevin moves a hand to Aaron’s head to trace patterns in his scalp and play with his hair, and even though they’re only like this on Colombia nights, Aaron has the thought that he wouldn’t mind this part of it a little more often.

\---

Katelyn and Aaron never really had a big falling out. Even though Katelyn broke up with him, and he was certainly vocal about his desire to stay in a relationship with her, Katelyn firmly refused to give up their friendship. It was hard, those first few months, but Katelyn was nothing if not patient, and she gave Aaron the time he needed to wallow until he was ready to see her as a friend again. 

And now that Aaron is with Kevin, their relationship has grown stronger than ever, and between classes and labs, they can hardly be found apart, spending all their free time in the library and the science building alike, even sometimes in Katelyn’s dorm (Aaron’s is off limits because of the existence of Andrew). They know each other’s coffee orders and they know each other’s highlighter brand.

They don’t know each other’s hook-ups. Aaron doesn’t want to hear about hers, and he refuses to tell Katelyn about his. 

It works.

They’re in the library one day before their shared Human Physiology class, going over the lecture notes in case of a pop quiz, when Katelyn speaks up.

“Do you ever miss us?” she asks, resting her chin on her hand as she looks over at Aaron. 

Aaron pauses. “In what way?” he asks as he shifts his focus over to Katelyn.

She shrugs. “Just being together, I guess. Being us.”

“Us.” Aaron frowns. They are us. “I still see you every day, Katie. Why would I miss being with you when I am with you?”

“Yeah,” Katelyn says, “but we’re not together together. We’re not dating.”

Aaron bites at his thumbnail. “It’s just the kissing and the sex we don’t have,” he says. “We’re the same otherwise. I don’t miss anything.”

Katelyn tilts her head to one side. “You don’t think there was an emotional aspect too?” she asks.

Aaron has to stop for a moment, consider. Eventually he says, “I’ve been thinking about that lately.” Katelyn looks at him weird, so he elaborates. “I mean, Nicky was bothering me about love the other day and he told me he thought we were in love,” he says. “I never considered it before. But if I did love you, then I still do. I haven’t stopped feeling the way I do about you, I just—I put those feelings into our friendship now, I guess.”

Katelyn’s squinting at him and his skin prickles. “You’re a different type of person, Aaron Minyard,” she says. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asks. Aaron’s never wanted to be seen as different—he’s spent too long pretending not to be, spent too much energy acting like anyone other than who he is, to be seen as different now. By Katelyn, no less.

Katelyn shakes her head. “It’s just that boys who are only friends with girls don’t usually go throwing around the L word, that’s all.” She smiles. “It’s refreshing, knowing you feel that way about me but you’re not looking for anything else.”

Sometimes, Aaron’s brain goes blank. That’s why he fills it with facts, why he collects speech cues like paperclips and gestures like pens. His mind is filled to the brim with ways to avoid awkward situations or ways to appear like he knows what he’s talking about when he can barely manage a coherent thought. But under pressure it comes to nothing and even the simplest of words fail him, the smallest sentence construction turning into the Pyramids of Giza, and it’s all he can do to manage a nod or a “yeah” or even a “sounds good” if the situation fits.

Which is why, in response to Katelyn, all Aaron has to say is, “Uh. Ok,” before he ducks his head into his textbook once more. 

Katelyn nudges his shoulder with hers. “That was a compliment, weirdo,” she says, and Aaron shakes his head. 

“Glycoproteins,” he says, pointing at the book, and Katelyn rolls her eyes.

“Glycoproteins,” she concedes.


	3. A Study in Embarrassment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicky snorts. “You should see them in Colombia,” he says. “Get a little alcohol in them and it’s horntown between those two.”
> 
> Kevin crosses his arms and Aaron feels his face go hot. 
> 
> “Fuck off, Nicky,” he says, his scowl almost matching Kevin’s. Nobody scowls like Kevin, though. He has it down to an art form.
> 
> Allison tilts her head as she looks at the two of them. “You know what, never mind I see it,” she says. “I hope you guys are miserable together.”
> 
> \---
> 
> Aaron and Kevin come out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at me with my three day turnaround. Almost like I have homework I want to avoid haha.

Aaron has always prided himself on his filter. Whereas other people tend to say their thoughts as they come to mind, or even consider their thoughts for a moment before saying them, Aaron has always paused as a thought comes to mind and taken the extra minute or so to organize it into a neat and orderly sentence, sometimes even down to the grammar of it. He’s not the quiet one for no reason, after all: he seems to be the only one in his life that considers what they’re saying before they say it—except for Andrew, that is, but when Andrew speaks he hardly says anything coherent at all.

So it’s very unusual for Aaron to come out with something outright, without any warning, without pretense. And it’s especially unusual for him to ever have bad timing.

It could be considered bad timing when, with his tongue halfway down Kevin’s throat and Kevin’s hand halfway down the front of his pants, Aaron says, “Andrew would kill us both if he found us like this.”

Kevin stills, nips at Aaron’s lip, and removes his hand, pulling back to look up at him. He licks his lips. “Ok,” he says after a long moment. “Um—“ he shakes his head— “alright?”

Aaron feels himself goes red, refuses to acknowledge it. “This is weird, isn’t it?” he says. “What we’re doing.”

Kevin blinks. “What are we doing?” he asks.

“That’s why it’s weird,” Aaron answers, and steals a kiss because why not. He’s learning to take what he wants more often when he knows he can have it. “I don’t know what I’m doing, let alone what we’re doing together.”

Kevin’s eyes stick on Aaron’s lips, but he makes no move to return to their previous activities. Instead he says, “We’re not playing the secrets game, because Nicky knows.” He raises his eyes to Aaron’s. “And yet the thought of Andrew is concerning you.”

Aaron has to avert his eyes, so he leans down and places his chin on Kevin’s shoulder, breathing in the scent of Kevin’s shampoo as he buries his face in his hair. Kevin tenses again, but then wraps his arms comfortably around Aaron’s waist, and Aaron thinks he could get used to this as he digs his hands between the bed and Kevin around Kevin’s waist. His arms will go numb like this, but it’s only temporary, while they have this conversation. It’ll be over soon and they’ll be going at it again, just like every other Colombia night.

Aaron swallows and says, into Kevin’s ear, “He always tries to take the things I care about from me. Especially when he doesn’t understand them.” It feels like to much of an admission, not just to Kevin but also to himself, but it’s the only thing that feels right to say.

Kevin moves a hand up to between Aaron’s shoulder blades and rubs circles. “I didn’t know I was something you cared about,” he says, and the real crime is that he sounds serious, as if the thought actually hasn’t crossed his mind, as if he doesn’t know, in the back of his mind, that Aaron wants more from this.

Aaron burrows deeper and touches his nose to Kevin’s earlobe. “I don’t go bent for just anyone, Day,” he mumbles, then shakes his head. “You goddamned fucking idiot, did you actually think you were just some sort of experiment? That I wanted to fuck a guy just for the fun of it? Do you know me at all, Kevin Day?” And by this point he’s laughing, and he kisses behind Kevin’s ear, and it’s all Kevin seems to be able to do that he squeezes tighter around Aaron’s waist, but that’s really not working because Aaron’s all riled up again and he want nothing more than to lay Kevin out and have his way with him, and he can’t quite do that when he can’t move. 

“Kevin,” he says, and Kevin loosens his grip and lets Aaron loose on himself, laying there and just taking it as Aaron puts to use all of the things he’s learned about Kevin over the months, all the sweet spots and dirty little pleasures and the spots that make Kevin’s voice go hoarse the next day. And when they’re done, Aaron slumps down next to a molten Kevin, so far gone he seems to bleed into the sheets, and their breaths dance together in the air above them.

Kevin takes Aaron’s hand, eventually, and says, “You really want this?”

Aaron closes his eyes. “I want everything you’ll give me.”

Kevin moves their joined hands to rest on his stomach, and they fall asleep that way.

\---

If they’re going to do this right, Aaron knows they have to be upfront about it with the Foxes. And to be upfront with the Foxes, they have to first be upfront with Andrew. Which means Aaron has to talk to him.

Aaron hates talking to his brother.

He has the best shot at getting a reasonable (well, reasonable-ish) Andrew when Neil’s in the room, so he tells Kevin to avoid his suite for an hour after practice one afternoon and uses that time to spring the conversation on Andrew.

He sighs as soon as Neil answers the door with that sour face he gets just before something incredibly stupid comes out of his mouth. He’s regretting this already.

“I have to talk to Andrew,” he says. Neil raises and eyebrow but lets him in, thankfully without a word.

Andrew is asleep on the couch, hands folded over his stomach, feet propped up on the coffee table. Aaron knows better.

“Andrew,” he says.

“Have you come to tell me about Kevin?” the other replies.

Aaron scoffs. “You think you can surprise me by knowing everything,” he says as he walks over to the back of the couch. He squats down next to Andrew’s head and continues, “You think I would’ve let him scream that loud if I wanted it a secret?”

Andrew opens his eyes. “What is this about?” he asks, and Aaron stands back up.

“It’s a warning,” he replies. “You let me go when you got with Josten and let me have Katelyn. You need to let Kevin go too. He doesn’t need you anymore.” He could’ve said it in a softer way, less blunt, but he knows this is necessary. Andrew craves nothing more than control; he needs to know forthright that this is one area where he doesn’t have it anymore.

Andrew blinks, slow. Then, he says, “Are you saying you will take care of him now.”

“I’m saying—“ Aaron walks around to the front of the couch, Andrew’s eyes following him all the while— “that he doesn’t need to be taken care of anymore. Just like I don’t. You let me go because I was ok on my own, Andrew, and it’s time you do the same for him.”

Andrew’s mouth twitches, for a second, downward. “Is he?” he says. “Ok on his own?”

“He’ll never be if you don’t let him be,” Aaron answers.

It’s silent for a full minute, maybe longer, before Andrew nods, once, and closes his eyes again. Aaron rolls his eyes as he leaves. Talking with Andrew is always such a mind game. He doesn’t know how Neil does it.

\---

“Minyard you fucking dick,” Allison says as she pulls roughly $600 worth of twenties from her purse to disperse evenly between Matt, Nicky, and Dan. “You really had to go and do that, didn’t you? I had good money on Kevin staying closeted to his deathbed to maintain his heterosexual jock boy image.”

Aaron quirks a lip. “I can see that,” he says. He considers telling her that Nicky’s known about Aaron and Kevin for going on four months now, but ultimately decides against it. Nicky should get some sort of award just for the mere fact he’s been able to keep a secret this long.

Kevin’s mouth is set in that perpetual frown of his as he watches the exchange. “I still don’t like this habit of yours,” he says, because of course he does. Kevin never likes anything fun. That’s what makes it fun.

Allison flips him off. “Don’t think I’m not mad at you too,” she says. “I have money to blow but I also have a reputation to uphold and you’ve just ruined it.”

He just frowns deeper. “I don’t like that my personal life is a bet,” he says. As if he’s not a celebrity. As if he’s not been in the spotlight since basically birth. Aaron shoves him. Kevin directs his frown at him.

Allison huffs and crosses her arms. “I don’t believe it anyways,” she says. “You have to be playing me. You guys aren’t acting like a couple at all. Aaron, where’s the adoring looks you used to give Katelyn? Kevin, where’s the slightly smaller scowl you give your exy stick?”

Nicky snorts. “You should see them in Colombia,” he says. “Get a little alcohol in them and it’s horntown between those two.”

Kevin crosses his arms and Aaron feels his face go hot. 

“Fuck off, Nicky,” he says, his scowl almost matching Kevin’s. Nobody scowls like Kevin, though. He has it down to an art form.

Allison tilts her head as she looks at the two of them. “You know what, never mind I see it,” she says. “I hope you guys are miserable together.”

Aaron sighs and stands, holding his favorite finger behind his back for Allison to see as he pulls Kevin out of the room. Allison yells at them to use protection as they leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really like the idea that Aaron actually calls Neil "Neil" in his head but puts in the extra effort to say "Josten" aloud.


	4. A Study in "Feelings"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicky sighs. “Ok, I hate to say this because I want to have faith in you,” he says, “but have you tried talking to him? You know, like actually getting to know each other?”
> 
> “I…” Aaron rubs a hand over his face. “Talking’s hard for me. You know that.”
> 
> “Oh, Aaron,” Nicky says with a hint of a smile as he shakes his head. “It’s not going to work if you only know as much about each other as the rest of us do. You have to know each other in a different way. On a more emotional level.”
> 
> Emotional. Ew.
> 
> Aaron presses his lips together. “This was a bad idea.”
> 
> \---
> 
> Aaron doesn't know what he's doing and neither does Kevin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I have to change the rating for this? Idek it's not all that much worse that the first chapter...

The problem with Aaron and Kevin is that neither has any clue how to be in a relationship. Sure, they’ve both had relationships before, and Aaron’s was even a good relationship, but being in a relationship and existing in a relationship are two different things and all they’ve ever done is exist. Aaron was never good at the relationship stuff with Katelyn, so he mostly let her take the lead, with a few exceptions of PDA after games, although that was mostly to piss Andrew off. Aaron’s not really huge on PDA—feels too much like opening himself up, vulnerable for everyone to see, so everyone knows his weak spot, everyone knows exactly where to punch to strike him down.

And Aaron doesn’t know much about Kevin’s relationship with Thea, but he does know that spending time together and being in the relationship were never a huge part of the equation with those two, even before Kevin left the Ravens. Hell, talking wasn’t even a mandatory most months. It was a half-formed bargain in the shape of a relationship that was destined to fail from the start, and it left Kevin with no clue how to do anything other than get off and occasionally talk in relationship situations.

Aaron sighs and takes off his glasses, his mind so far from concentrating on schoolwork that he’s not sure he even knows what letter shapes make what words anymore, and turns to Nicky, lounging on his bed with Erik on speakerphone, nothing but the man’s breaths coming down the line at this point.

“You said it would be good,” Aaron says, and Nicky looks up. “It’s not working. How do I make it good?”

Erik says something in German that’s too muffled for Aaron to hear and Nicky promises to call him back in a minuter before hanging up. Aaron sucks on his upper lip. He’s feeling vulnerable again, like his emotions are showing on his face without him giving them permission, and he’s only glad that Nicky already knows him so well or else he’d be worried about him learning something about Aaron that he normally keeps hidden.

There’s a lot of parts of Aaron that stay hidden to most people.

“It’s not working with you two?” Nicky asks, his forehead wrinkled with a frown.

Aaron shrugs. “It’s fine when we hook up but all the other stuff…” he shakes his head. “It’s new. For both of us.”

“Oh,” Nicky says, “that makes sense. Have you gone on a date yet?”

Aaron tongues at his cheek. They had tried a date, a few nights ago at the library. A study date—Aaron’s idea because it’s the only kind of date he ever went on with Katelyn and Kevin had never actually been on a date. That, and study dates are low stakes. Not many people around, no pressure for conversation, and it’s productive at the same time. 

But with Kevin it was awkward. Up until they left back to Fox Tower and Kevin pulled Aaron into bed with him. It’s like the only thing they know how to do is make each other feel good. All the other relationship-y stuff is null.

“I don’t think dates are for us,” Aaron eventually says.

Nicky sighs. “Ok, I hate to say this because I want to have faith in you,” he says, “but have you tried talking to him? You know, like actually getting to know each other?”

“I…” Aaron rubs a hand over his face. “Talking’s hard for me. You know that.”

“Oh, Aaron,” Nicky says with a hint of a smile as he shakes his head. “It’s not going to work if you only know as much about each other as the rest of us do. You have to know each other in a different way. On a more emotional level.”

Emotional. Ew.

Aaron presses his lips together. “This was a bad idea.”

“Aaron,” Nicky says, his voice suddenly stern. “I will not see you give up on another relationship just because emotions got involved. This is what pushed Katelyn away.”

“Maybe I’m just not an emotions type of person. Maybe I deserve to be alone,” Aaron says.

Nicky glares. “No the fuck you don’t,” he says. “And neither does Kevin. Are you really going to let a good thing go to waste because you don’t want to put in the energy to make it great?”

“Well the last time I put energy into a relationship I almost went to jail for manslaughter so excuse me if I don’t want to do it again.”

“Aaron,” Nicky says, and his voice has gone soft again. Aaron closes his eyes so he doesn’t have to look his cousin in the face. “You can’t keep doing this to yourself.”

Aaron doesn’t say anything. The words are gone again.

Nicky sighs, loudly, and says, “Watch a movie together, just the two of you, and don’t start making out. That should be a good start.”

Aaron nods, and turns back to his work. He feels too small for his skin.

\---

“A movie?” Kevin frowns. “Do you watch those?”

Mostly, Aaron doesn’t. He does know what the good ones are, though. 

“It was Nicky’s idea,” he says. “He said watch a movie alone together and don’t make out and our problems will be solved.”

Kevin hums. “Does sound like him,” he says. Aaron shrugs, and puts in the DVD for Kiki’s Delivery Service because he’s feeling nostalgic. 

They settle in on the couch as the opening credits play and Aaron thinks he’s never been so uncomfortable on a couch before. He can’t stop fidgeting with his hands and then his legs and then he thinks he might be annoying Kevin so he stops altogether and has to wiggle his toes so he doesn’t go insane while keeping still. By the time Kiki falls into the hay train, Aaron has to stand up and he uses the excuse of grabbing water so Kevin doesn’t think he’s gone insane. 

As he walks back with two glasses of water, he sees it, and sighs inwardly. There is a reason Nicky suggested a movie alone.

Kevin stiffens when Aaron settles into his side, pulling his arm around his shoulders in a way that, admittedly, makes his stomach warm.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to make out,” Kevin says, and Aaron thinks he might just be stupider than Aaron himself, and Aaron’s feeling pretty stupid right about now.

He tucks his head into a corner of Kevin’s chest and says, “Cuddling isn’t making out.” It takes a while, but after a bit of maneuvering for maximum comfort and a few minutes of Aaron playing with Kevin’s hand and the finger that won’t quite straighten, Kevin settles down again, and they watch the movie. It’s pretty nice.

Aaron bends the rules a little bit.

It starts innocently enough, Aaron continuing to play with Kevin’s hands, massaging his knuckles, brushing patterns over his fingers. It’s only when Aaron notices that he’s started to trace over Kevin’s scar—when he navigated to the left hand, he doesn’t know—and Kevin tenses again that Aaron decides they could use a little loosening up right about now, so he lifts Kevin’s hand to his mouth and brushes his lips over the most intense part of the scar, the intersection of the little white lines, the barely noticeable indent where a chunk of skin is missing. 

Kevin’s fingers curl over Aaron’s hands. “I don’t think that’s allowed,” he says.

“Still not making out,” Aaron whispers against Kevin’s skin, and goosebumps raise on Kevin’s arm as he continues to kiss over and under an all around Kevin’s hand and his wrist and up his arm. By the time he reaches his shoulder, he’s turned over in his position and started to straddle Kevin who, by some force of nature, is still looking at the television screen.

“Asshole,” Aaron whispers in his ear, and Kevin shakes his head. 

“I know what you’re doing,” he says. “Does it really make you that uncomfortable to spend time with me without having sex?”

“Yes,” Aaron replies, and leans forward to nibble on Kevin’s ear. Kevin makes a short noise of disapproval, but tilts his head for better access anyway.

“Can’t stand the thought of actually having feelings for a guy?” Kevin asks.

Aaron grinds down on him, slow and deliberate, and Kevin’s eyes shut for a moment but he otherwise doesn’t react. “I can stand having feelings,” he says.

Kevin laughs, strained, and says, “That’s on me. I should’ve specified I meant romantic feelings.”

Aaron hums against Kevin’s throat and mumbles, “I’m the one who asked you out, aren’t I?”

“And yet you continue to avoid actually going out.” Kevin swallows as Aaron licks down the side of his neck. “Or even talk normally.”

“And how would you know what’s normal?”

“Because I’ve seen you do it before. With Katelyn.”

Aaron goes still for a moment, then moves his hands to the button of Kevin’s jeans and, when Kevin doesn’t resist, sticks a hand down the front. Kevin grunts, still refusing to look at Aaron, even as he touches him, even as he begins to rub and pull and jerk, even as Kevin spends himself, hot and sticky, into Aaron’s hand, biting on his own arm to stifle himself.

Aaron pulls his hand out and wipes it on Kevin’s shirt as he says, into Kevin’s ear, “I know you’re louder than that, Day. Don’t hold back for my sake.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Kevin replies, breathless. “It was for my sake.”

Aaron stands, and walks to the bathroom, hot and angry and shaking. 

When Nicky asks, he’ll tell him they didn’t make out.


	5. A Study in Conversation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaron sighs. “We’ll play the question game—don’t look at me like that, we need help and you know it. After every question you get a kiss in a spot of your choosing.”
> 
> Kevin considers. “To give or to get?” he asks. As if it makes a difference what his answer will be.
> 
> “Your choice,” Aaron says. “Are you in or not?”
> 
> \---
> 
> These idiots finally get it together, somewhat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry fo the long wait, college got busy. I think there will be one more chapter after this? Idk though you know I can't make up my mind ever.

The lecture, surprisingly, does not come from Nicky, but from Coach Wymack himself. It’s after practice one day, once the locker rooms have all but cleared out (Neil takes his time), and Wymack stops Aaron on his way out and gestures to his office. Aaron’s heart stutters, but he follows. He’s never been the troublemaker of the group—maybe Wymack mistook him for Andrew?

“Have a seat,” he says as he closes the door behind the two of them, and Aaron complies, his eyes following the man as he walks across the room to take his own seat at his desk.

“Coach, why am I here?” he asks once they’re both situated, and Wymack shakes his head.

“Far be it from me to meddle in your personal business, Minyard,” he says, “but why does Kevin think you hate him?”

Hate. Hate? 

“He—he what?” Aaron manages, his face going hot at the stutter. He bites his lip.

Wymack sighs, loud and deep. “Thinks you hate him. Says you won’t ever talk to him, just hook up.” He leans forward in his seat. “Now I’ve never had a boyfriend so correct me if I’m wrong,” he says, “but I’m pretty sure talking is part of the deal.”

Aaron swallows. How serious does this have to be for Wymack to get involved? How much does Kevin think Aaron hates him?

“Thought this was above your pay grade, coach,” Aaron tries. He’s smarter than that, though.

Wymack grunts. “Andrew and Josten are,” he says. “Not Kevin.”

Aaron looks down and pulls Katelyn’s hairband off his wrist, fidgeting with it as he tries to think through his answer.

“Coach,” he says, and he pulls so hard that the hairband breaks and flies into oblivion, smacking him across the cheek in the process. Shit. He’ll have to ask Katelyn for a new hair tie. He shakes his head with a hand to his cheek. “I don’t hate him,” he says.

“Then what is it, Minyard,” Wymack says, his voice full of exhaustion. “I don’t exactly enjoy seeing my son rip himself apart in practice like this.”

More like rip Neil apart. The striker hasn’t been able to catch a break in days, though he gives as much as he gets. It’s not been a great week for fights.

“It’s not that I don’t want to talk, I just—“ Aaron shakes his head— “I don’t know how. I don’t know how to do any of this.”

Wymack puts a thumb to his lower lip and rubs before saying, “You kids make everything so difficult.” He shakes his head. “Listen, no kind of relationship is ever uncomplicated. I have my own struggles with Kevin after all those years, and he’s the same with me. But you do have to try, Aaron. Otherwise it’ll look like you just don’t care at all.”

Aaron just wants to leave. But he nods, says “Yes, coach,” and files away the conversation in his head to unpack later.

“Good,” Wymack says. “Now get out of my sight, I have work to do.”

\---

He forgets about it for a while, his mind blissfully occupied with too many other things to settle for too long on his relationship issues. But it comes back to him, as it always does, and he lays his head down on the library table and groans.

Katelyn pokes his arm with a pencil. “As much as I relate,” she says, “this is review and you aced the quiz the first time around. What’s going on?”

Aaron shifts his head so he’s looking at Katelyn, his right ear resting on the table. “Was I a bad boyfriend?” he asks, and Katelyn pulls a face.

“Where’s that coming from?” she says.

Aaron shrugs, not wanting to explain the situation to her and also knowing that even if he did want to, the words won’t form right and they’ll come out all jumbled and with full minutes between each clause. Katelyn sighs as she recognizes whatever emotion (emotion?) must be showing on Aaron’s face, and leans back in her chair.

“Of course you were a good boyfriend,” she says eventually. “What is it that you’re feeling bad about?”

Aaron thinks Katelyn should go into psychology rather than neurology. She has a way of cutting right to the core of the issue.

“I… I’m bad at words. Communication. You took the lead on most of that stuff, but I’m just finding out that all that stuff is the most important part of a relationship,” he says. “I should’ve done more and now I don’t know how.”

Katelyn frowns. “Why do you think that?” she asks. “I love our conversations.”

“But you start all of them. You keep them going. I just fill the space.”

“What do you think a conversation is?” Katelyn shakes her head. “Ok, this is about Kevin, right?” Aaron’s eyes shoot wide and Katelyn waves him off. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m not completely out of the exy loop just because we’re not dating anymore.”

Aaron’s face burns, but he nods.

Katelyn nods once, curt. “Ok, so it’s not a one way street, Aaron,” she says. “Kevin’s kinda weird with communication too, so you’re probably just missing each other. You need to find something that makes you click and then once you’re comfortable with each other you’ll open the floodgates. That’s what I did with you when we first became friends, and now you tell me almost everything.”

Common interests. That, Aaron can work with. Aaron shakes his head. “How are you so wise?” he asks, and Katelyn picks her pen up and returns to her worksheet.

“I dated you, didn’t I?” she jokes, and Aaron shoves her without any real vigor and she shoves back until they’re stifling laughter to avoid being scolded by the front desk attendant.

“Hey,” Aaron says a few minutes later, “you wouldn’t happen to have another hair tie I could steal, would you?”

“You broke another one?”

Aaron shrugs, and Katelyn shakes her head, even as she grabs one out of her pencil case and tosses it to him.

“You’re just lucky I’m a cheerleader,” she says. Aaron would have to agree.

\---

When Kevin approaches him at Eden’s the next Friday, Aaron holds a hand to his chest and pushes him back.

“I’ve been told I need to talk to you,” he says. Kevin frowns, and Aaron swears he’s the best frowner there is. It’s like exy—he never stops practicing it.

“Right now?” he asks. “I’m four shots in already, why do you want to talk now?” He leans forward again, and Aaron crosses his arms against his chest to hold him back.

“If I let myself forget about it again it’ll never get done,” he says, to which Kevin throws back his head and groans.

“You have the worst timing, Minyard.” He grabs Aaron’s wrist. “Let’s go outside,” he says, detouring past the table for a glass of what looks to be water although Aaron’s never actually seen Kevin willingly consume anything non-alcoholic this early in the night. Aaron itches to grab a shot for himself to take the edge off his nerves but Andrew gives him a look and he keeps his hands at his sides as they pass. He has to start somewhere if he’s ever going to kick his alcoholism in time to become a surgeon and he made a promise to Bee in his last session with Andrew that he’d try to cut back on Fridays. 

They finally make it outside and Aaron wants to climb inside of Kevin and take him apart from within with the way he looks in the streetlight, but he bites his lip and looks away instead as they settle on the curb away from the entrance. Ice clinks against the glass as Kevin takes a gulp of water and sets the cup down next to him to focus on Aaron.

“So what do you want to talk about, then?” he asks. Aaron can’t quite parse out whether he still sounds bitter or if he’s resigned himself to the situation. Maybe a mix of both.

Aaron blurts the first thing that comes to mind. “Exy.”

“Exy?”

Fuck. “No, uh…” Aaron pinches the bridge of his nose. “Um. What do you like?”

“Like.”

“Yes, Day, like.”

Truly, nobody ever wore a scowl better than Kevin Day. “I like making out with my boyfriend, but that doesn’t seem to be an option right now,” he says.

Aaron groans. “Give me a break, ok?” He rubs down the side of his face with the palm of his hand. “I don’t know how to do this. Katelyn said to find common ground.”

“You went to your ex-girlfriend for advice on talking to your new boyfriend?” Kevin scoffs, and Aaron glares at him.

“At least she was more helpful than you’re being,” he says. “I thought you wanted us to talk, where’s the Kevin from a few days ago?”

“Where’s the Aaron from a few days ago?” Kevin swallows and Aaron’s eyes follow the motion of his Adam’s Apple. “All I want is a regular Colombia night and you want to talk?”

Just missing each other. What Katelyn was saying starts to make sense. They have to find common ground. They have to meet each other halfway.

Aaron sighs. “We’ll play the question game—don’t look at me like that, we need help and you know it. After every question you get a kiss in a spot of your choosing.”

Kevin considers. “To give or to get?” he asks. As if it makes a difference what his answer will be.

“Your choice,” Aaron says. “Are you in or not?”

Kevin licks his lips and says, “Ok,” before leaning forward to steal a quick kiss. “That was technically a question, I’m not breaking the rules,” he says quickly after, and Aaron only raises a brow. Kevin rolls his eyes. “Get on with it, then.”

Minor problem. Aaron still doesn’t know how to do this. What are the questions that cut to the core of the person? The questions that determine compatibility? The dumb extra questions that couples know for no reason other than to prove they “know” their partner? And where does he start?

“Why do you like me?” Aaron eventually asks, deciding to go with a question he’s genuinely curious about to start.

Kevin blinks. “Um.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know, I just kind of… feel drawn to you, I guess? That makes no sense, I’m sorry. You’re just… super smart, and everything you say is well thought out, and I feel like we’re the same in some ways and you might understand… and, uh. You’re pretty cute too.”

Aaron shouldn’t have asked. Kevin shouldn’t have answered. He shouldn’t have had so many reasons. Kevin taps his cheek over his tattoo and Aaron leans forward to kiss it, lingering a second longer than he means to.

“Ok,” Aaron says. “Now you ask a question. It can’t just go one way.”

Kevin nods, then after a few moments asks, “Why did you and Katelyn break up?”

He should’ve expected it. He pulls a hand through his hair and looks down at the sidewalk. “She broke up with me,” he says. “She, uh. She thought I was becoming too dependent on her and, um, that I was using her to piss off Andrew and ignore my problems.” She was right, of course, even if Aaron didn’t want to admit it at first, and they really are better off as friends. It was hard, though, at the time. He really was dependent on her, and it was hard to get used to not having her to fall back on when things started to be too much again.

Kevin reaches forward and cups his hand around Aaron’s jaw, thumb playing with his earlobe as he presses a warm kiss to Aaron’s forehead, and the gesture is so tender that Aaron accidentally shivers, unused to this level of affection.

Kevin goes to take his hand away, but Aaron steals it and puts it in his lap, playing with his fingers as he asks, “What’s your favorite color?”

Kevin smirks. “The color of your cheeks right now,” he says without missing a beat, kissing Aaron’s quickly heating cheeks for good measure. “Why do you want to be a doctor?”

“Surgeon,” Aaron says. “And it makes sense. It has rules. I like that.” He kisses the tip of Kevin’s nose before Kevin can even say where he wants to kiss or be kissed, and it’s worth it for the bashful smile that follows. “How are you so cute?” Aaron asks.

Kevin averts his eyes. “Shit,” he laughs. “I don’t think I can answer that. How are you?”

Aaron shakes his head. “I’m small and people think that’s endearing somehow,” he says. “Do you wanna be done with this game for now?”

Kevin bites his lip and his eyes focus in on Aaron’s. “If you do,” he says. Aaron climbs onto Kevin’s lap and kisses him senseless like he’s wanted to do all night. 

Ok, maybe talking does work. Sometimes.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: @i-like-gay-books


End file.
